Oculus opens online store

Irvine-based Oculus VR launched a downloadable virtual-reality software store this week, another step on the young company's accelerating path toward shipping a consumer-friendly and inexpensive head-mounted display that can make wearers feel like they are in another world.

The goggles are called the Oculus Rift, and more than 15,000 of an early version, priced at $300 each, have shipped to developers. The new store is available via the Web for developers to share their creations. A company source said features such as payment processing will be added over time. Right now downloads are free and Oculus will curate the content, as Apple does with its iPhone App Store.

Oculus got $16 million from investors in June to spur hiring of virtual-reality experts, announced a competition to encourage developers to build VR experiences in July and added video game software pioneer John Carmack as its chief technology officer earlier this month.

Oculus must clear a few key technical hurdles – a higher-resolution screen, more complete motion tracking and bugs that could make the wearer feel motion sickness – before the device is ready for consumers.

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